1920s navigation system and more
posted Aug 18th 2008 3:00pm by Strom Carlsonfiled under: misc hacks
And now, for your amusement, we present to you a navigation system from the 1920s. It’s not so much a satellite navigation system as it is a tiny map mounted in a wristwatch, but for the available technology of the era, this was a pretty ingenious invention, Other (and somewhat more bizarre) entries on this list of over a dozen other inventions from the early part of the 20th century include a finger stretcher, an eyeball massager, and mustache guards. Although most of these inventions seem laughable today, they are an interesting study in finding creative solutions to real problems. After all, what these inventors did a hundred years ago with gears and paper is pretty much what we do today with transistors and LEDs.
[via The Presurfer]
Interestingly, scroll-based navigation is still used today… competitors in RallyMoto (like stage rally, but with motorcycles instead of safe, comfortable, co-driver-equipped cars) use them for navigation on transits.
Works fine as long as you don’t get off the route… sort of like Hertz NeverLost.